10 Awesome Wrestling Matches You May Have Missed In 2018
3. Buddy Murphy Vs. Mustafa Ali (WWE 205 Live - 3 July)
Rivals Buddy Murphy and Mustafa Ali contested an awesome match at WWE Survivor Series, but while the year's last 'Big Four' pay-per-view allowed the talented duo to bring their underrated 2018 feud to a global stage, it didn't yield their best bout together.
That manifested on the 3 July episode of 205 Live, where the full range of their in-ring creativity came to life under a No DQ stipulation.
This was their third bout together. Like all great sequels, Ali and Murphy called back to their previous encounters throughout. They told their story as if it were unfolding in a pay-per-view main event, not on 205, working the announce table and a set of ring steps into proceedings as their deep, personal hatred boiled over. That bad blood was present in everything they did, and it's to the duo's credit that they were even able to shake the usually dead 205 crowd out of their slumber towards the end.
High spots were legion, but never gratuitous. This was about settling beef, not abandoning psychology for an over-choreographed stunt show, and the result was one of WWE's most satisfying 2018 grudge matches.
Watch: WWE Network (paywall)